Facebook copies Snapchat AGAIN in a Whatsapp new feature ‘status’

Whatsapp, the popular messaging application, is testing a new feature called ‘status’ which allows users to share mood; setting photos and videos with their customized elements: emojis and the content. The content disappears after 24 hours – so basically Snapchat stories again! Not only the feature idea is copied, but the camera features too.

Why would Facebook fire up copying and do the same thing again?

The feature is familiar because it is similar to Instagram stories that have been applied by Facebook in August. Whatsapp status and Instagram stories are clones of Snapchat stories.

When Snapchat launched its stories three years ago, the sharing feature became hugely popular. The feature is now ruling the growth rate of social media generally and messaging apps specifically with 10 billion daily video views as of April.

Another reason: Facebook has recently adopted a new strategy of pushing video first, which has been stated many times by Mark Zuckerberg throughout Facebook’s third-quarter earnings call this week.

“I want to start by talking about our work around putting video first across our apps,” Zuckerberg said.

How the feature works?

A new status tab will appear next to Chats and Calls where users will be able to view their status and statuses of their friends who shared with them. There is an option to choose who can see your status and also who has viewed it. The status will not only be images and videos, but it can also be the frequent text status update.

Instead of creating an original pack of their own they used an open source Twemoji used by Twitter and Snapchat

The new status feature is now hidden on Whatsapp latest beta version (2.16.336). Beta users only can test the feature with a Xposed module and with jailbroken iPhones or Android-based smartphones. However, it will eventually be available for everyone across all platforms soon after the testing is done.